The defending national champion South Carolina Gamecocks took a trip to Memphis to play the Tigers in the 1st annual Hoops for St. Jude Tip Off Classic, defeating Memphis 106-63.
Memphis was dealing with a lot of key players inactive for this contest with DeeDee Hageman, Elauna Eaton, Ally Hollifield, and Destyne Jackson all unavailable.
Despite the inactive members, Memphis put up a good fight in the first half, drawing the Gamecocks lead under 10 at one point. In the end, the Gamecocks, ranked #1 in the preseason AP Poll, proved to be the better team all around.
“There’s a reason we play games like this,” said Memphis coach Alex Simmons after the game. “Number one, to get better. Number two, to see what it feels like to play at a level that literally nobody in the country plays at.”
As the game began, South Carolina quickly went to work, going on a 12-2 run that was broken by a pull-up midrange shot from Memphis guard Raven Sims.
Due to the inactive players, Memphis was without key production from the three-point line. Because of this, they opted to stay aggressive and earn points at the free-throw line. They shot 14-21 from the line and only 5-13 from deep for the game.
After ending the 1st quarter down 25-11, the Tigers picked up the pace on offense to make this a competitive affair. They would go bucket for bucket with the defending national champions, until Memphis forward Tilly Boler made a pair of transition threes to cut the Gamecock lead to just 8.
“It was surreal,” said Boler postgame about this moment. “I felt like I was on top of the world, I’m not going to lie.”
South Carolina would rally from the Tiger onslaught of scoring, going on another 12-2 stretch to end the first half up 50-32 behind an incredible job on the offensive glass, corralling 5 boards on that side of the ball.
In the second half, South Carolina would close the door on a Memphis comeback emphatically. SC forwards Chloe Kitts would turn up, scoring 7 points and grabbing 6 rebounds in only 10 minutes. She, alongside Joyce Edwards, would end the game with a double-double; Edwards would finish with 19 and 12 rebounds, while Kitts finished with 15 points and 13 boards.
Dawn Staley, coach for the Gamecocks, gave high praise for Simmons and the Tigers after the South Carolina victory: “[Memphis doesn’t] give up, they’re a very, very physical basketball team. Very well coached, they know where they want their shots to come from.”
She then remarked that they were looking forward to playing against Memphis point guard DeeDee Hageman, who won’t be in the lineup until December due to academic ineligibility.
Staley also said that the Tigers out-worked South Carolina and that the Gamecocks were once in a similar place, a gritty program on the rise.
Alex Simmons, when asked about the effort plays being made in a massive blowout said, “That’s what we’re about. We’re not going to quit because of our circumstances in the moment.”
